AN AFRICAN refugee jailed twice for sex attacks has won £110,000 compensation after the Home Office kept him locked up while trying to deport him.

Aliou Bah, 28, was kept in prison for 21 months longer than he should have been after serving sentences for the crimes, which included a sex assault on a 16-year-old girl.

The attacker had arrived in Britain in 2007 from Guinea and Home Office officials were trying to send him back to his West African homeland.

But the move was blocked after the Guinea Embassy refused to issue him with travel papers and bungling Home Office officials were unaware Bah had been granted permission to stay in Britain.

Judge Nicholas Madge has now ruled that Bah must be awarded the money to compensate him for the extra time spent behind bars.

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Aliou Bah, 28, was kept in prison for 21 months longer than he should have been

This is the legal system gone mad

Ukip MEP Gerard Batten

Judge Madge admitted that many people would say that it is the victims of sexual abuse who should be paid large sums in compensation, not the men who sexually abuse them.

He said he agreed with that but added it was his job to uphold the law. As Bah had refugee status, he should not have been held in custody after his sentences expired.

Last night critics hit out at the ruling.

Daily Express columnist and Tory former shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe said: “We have lost all common sense. He shouldn’t be getting a penny piece.”

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Ann Widdecombe: ‘We have lost all common sense. He shouldn’t be getting a penny piece’

Ukip MEP Gerard Batten said: “This is the legal system gone mad. We import people who sexually assault girls, then end up having to pay them after we lock them up to keep the public safe.

In the end we let them out so they are free to offend again and give them a £110,000 bonus.

“The primary duty of a government is to protect its innocent people.” Central London County Court heard Bah was a teenager when he arrived in Britain 10 years ago to join his refugee father. In February 2011 he was jailed for 18 months after being convicted of sexually assaulting the 16-year-old girl.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. In 2014 he was jailed again for two years for a second sexual assault. The court heard the then home secretary Theresa May signed a deportation order against him in December 2011, not realising he was entitled to be treated as a refugee.

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Home Office spokesman: 'This case does not change the legality of Mr Bah’s status in the UK'

As a result, Bah was wrongly held in detention for 14 months between January 2012 and March 2013. He was unlawfully detained again “pending deportation”, this time for seven months, until June 2015.

Judge Madge concluded that had Home Office officials behaved in a competent manner, the need to award Bah damages would not have arisen.

John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be disappointed at this staggering example of government incompetence.”

A Home Office spokesman said last night: “We are now considering the judgment but this case does not change the legality of Mr Bah’s status in the UK.”